Snap Framework HTTP Server Library
----------------------------------
This is the first developer prerelease of the Snap Framework HTTP Server
library. For more information about Snap, read the `README.SNAP.md` or visit
the Snap project website at http://www.snapframework.com/.
The Snap HTTP server is a high performance, epoll-enabled, iteratee-based web
server library written in Haskell. Together with the `snap-core` library upon
which it depends, it provides a clean and efficient Haskell programming
interface to the HTTP protocol. Higher-level facilities for building web
applications (like user/session management, component interfaces, data
modeling, etc.) are not yet implemented, so this release will mostly be of
interest for those who:
* need a fast and minimal HTTP API at roughly the same level of abstraction
as Java servlets,
or
* are interested in contributing to the Snap Framework project.
Building snap-server
--------------------
## Dependencies
To build the Snap HTTP server, you need to `cabal install` the `snap-core`
library (which should have come with this package).
The snap-server library can optionally use the
[libev](http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libev.html) for high-speed, O(1)
scalable socket event processing.
## Building snap-server
The snap-server library is built using [Cabal](http://www.haskell.org/cabal/)
and [Hackage](http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/hackage.html). Just run
cabal install
for the "stock" version of Snap or
cabal install -flibev
for the libev-based backend.
## Building the Haddock Documentation
The haddock documentation can be built using the supplied `haddock.sh` shell
script:
./haddock.sh
The docs get put in `dist/doc/html/`.
## Building the testsuite
Snap is still in its very early stages, so most of the "action" (and a big
chunk of the code) right now is centred on the test suite. Snap aims for 100%
test coverage, and we're trying hard to stick to that.
To build the test suite, `cd` into the `test/` directory and run
$ cabal configure # for the stock backend
$ cabal configure -flibev # for the libev backend
$ cabal build
From here you can invoke the testsuite by running:
$ ./runTestsAndCoverage.sh
The testsuite generates an `hpc` test coverage report in `test/dist/hpc`.
The test `cabal` project also builds an executable called "pongserver" which is
a test HTTP server, hardcoded to run on port 8000:
$ ./dist/build/pongserver/pongserver +RTS -A4M -N4 -qg0 -qb -g1
(Those are the RTS settings that give me the highest performance on my
quad-core Linux box running GHC 6.12.1, your mileage may vary.)
This server just outputs "PONG" but it is a complete example of an HTTP
application (FIXME: currently this isn't true, we need to make pongserver run
in the still-incomplete Snap monad):
$ curl -i http://localhost:8000
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 4
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:17:45 GMT
Server: Snap/0.pre-1
PONG